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Leopold I of Hulstria
Leopold I (Leopold Otto Friedrich Wilhelm von Hohenstauffen, Kaiser von Groß Hulstenreich, Herzog von Bozarland, Fürst von Oranien; English: Leopold Otto Frederick William of Hohenstauffen, Emperor of Greater-Hulstria, Duke of Bozarland, Prince of Orange) (25 November 2300 – 31 July 2366) was Emperor of Greater Hulstria from 2325 until shortly before his death. He is sometimes called the Dream King (Hulstrian: ''der Trömenkönig). Additional titles were Duke of Bozarland, Duke of Hohenstauffen and Prince of Orange. '' Leopold I is sometimes also called "Mad King Leopold", though the accuracy of that label has been disputed. Because Friedrich August was deposed on grounds of mental illness without any medical examination and died a weak later under mysterious circumstances, questions about the medical "diagnosis" remain controversial. Leopold I is best known as an eccentric whose legacy is intertwined with the history of art and architecture. He commissioned the construction of several extravagant castles and palaces, the most famous being Oranienburg, and was a devoted patron of the composer Ludvik Vorm. Since his legacy of grandiose castles, museums and parks lives on in the form of massive tourist revenue, Emperor Leopold I is generally well liked and even revered by many in Hulstria today. Childhood and adolescent years Born in Schwanhof Castle (near Dundorf), he was the eldest son of Crown Prince Friedrich August, the later Emperor Friedrich August II of Greater Hulstria, and his wife Princess Amalia of Dunmark. Three years later his younger brother, Otto, was born. Like many young heirs in an age when Emperors and Kings governed most of Terra, Leopold was continually reminded of his royal status. Emperor Friedrich August II wanted to instruct both of his sons in the burdens of royal duty from an early age. He was both extremely indulged and severely controlled by his tutors and subjected to a strict regimen of study and exercise. There are some who point to these stresses of growing up in a royal family as the causes for much of his odd behavior as an adult. Leopold was not close with either of his parents. Emperor Friedrich August's advisers had suggested that on his daily walks he might like, at times, to be accompanied by his future successor. The Emperor replied, "But what am I to say to him? After all, my son takes no interest in what other people tell him." Later, Leopold would refer to his mother as "my predecessor's consort". He was far closer to his grandmother, Princess Luise of Hessingen (2244-2320), who came from a family of eccentrics. Leopold's childhood years did have happy moments. He lived for much of the time at Castle Schwanhof, a beautiful castle his grandfather had built near the Schwansee (Swan Lake, near Dundorf. It was decorated in the gothic style with countless frescoes depicting heroic Hulstrian sagas. As an adolescent, Leopold became best friends with his aide de camp, Prince Jozef of Löwenberg. The two young men rode together, read poetry aloud, and staged scenes from the Romantic operas of Ludvik Vorm. The friendship ended when Jozef became engaged in 1826. Early reign , 2326]] Crown Prince Leopold had just turned 25 when his father suddenly died, and he ascended the Hulstrian throne as Emperor Leopold I . Although he was not fully prepared for high office, his youth and brooding good looks made him popular in Hulstria and elsewhere. One of the first acts of his reign was to summon composer Ludvik Vorm to his court in Dundorf. Vorm had a notorious reputation as a revolutionary and a womanizer and was constantly on the run from creditors. Leopold had admired Vorm since first seeing his opera, The Swan, at the impressionable age of 14, followed by Adela ten months later. Vorm's operas appealed to the emperor's fantasy-filled imagination and filled an emotional void. On 3 August 2326, the 61-year-old Vorm was given an unprecedented 2 hour audience with Leopold in the Imperial Palace in Dundorf; later the composer wrote of his first meeting with Leopold, "He is so handsome and wise, soulful and lovely, that I fear that his life must melt away in this vulgar world like a fleeting dream of the gods." The king was likely the saviour of Vorm's career. Without Leopold, it is doubted that Vorm's later operas would have been composed, much less premiered at the prestigious Dundorf Imperial Court Theatre, now the Dundorf State Opera House. But the composer’s extravagant and scandalous behaviour in the capital was unsettling for the conservative people of Hulstria, and the Emperor was forced to ask Vorm to leave the capital in December 2330. , 2327]] Leopold became engaged to Princess Maria Theresa of Hessingen, his cousin and the youngest sister of his dear friend, Empress Celeste of Alduria. The engagement was publicized on 22 May 2327, but after repeatedly postponing the wedding date, Leopold finally cancelled the engagement in February 2328. After the engagement was broken off, Leopold wrote to his former fiancee, "My beloved Lena! Your cruel father has torn us apart. Eternally yours, Hugo" (the names Lena and Hugo came from characters from Vorms operas)11 Ludwig never married, but Theresa later married King Casimir IV of Rutania. Throughout his reign, Leopold had a succession of close friendships with men, including his chief equerry, Richard Göring, Rutanian revolutionary Bula Ranciz, and Aldurian theatre actor Alphonse Villain. He began keeping a diary in which he recorded his private thoughts and his attempts to suppress his sexual desires and remain true to his Orthodox faith. Leopold's original diaries from 23540 were lost during the First Hulstrian Civil War, and all that remains today are copies of entries during the 2366 plot to depose him. These transcribed diary entries, along with private letters and other surviving personal documents, suggest that Leopold was homosexual and struggled with his orientation throughout his life. (Homosexuality had not been punishable in Hulstria since 2317). After the creation of more parliamental power after the Revolution of 2346, Leopold increasingly withdrew from politics, and devoted himself to his personal creative projects, most famously his castles, where he personally approved every detail of the architecture, decoration and furnishing. Controversy and power struggles , the most famous of Leopold's building projects]] Though extremely disliked by his subjects at the end of his reign, Leopold I is remembered today by many Hulstrians as the "Builder Emperor" (Kaiser-Baumeister in Hulstrian) because he commissioneda great number of castles palaces and other buildings and urban projects, mainly in Dundorf, Kien and Hessel, most of which still exist today, such as the Dundorf State Opera, the Imperial Library (today the Royal Library Dundorf), St. Anna's Cathedral, and the 2355-2360 Dundorf-Central railway station. Moreover, Leopold also renovated and improved the Imperial Palace and many other royal residences. But most famous of his building projects was the Oranienburg Palace. In 2337, Leopold I layed the first cornerstone of his new to build palace, at his personal domain of Orange (Hulstrian: Oranien), 40 km south of Dundorf. The new imperial palace was meant to outdo its predecessor in scale and opulence. The grounds contained a romantic grotto lit by electricity, where Leopold was rowed in a boat shaped like a shell. Together with the palace, the buildings on the Imperial Domain of Oranienburg include the Imperial Glasshouses, the Mandalan Pavilion, the Museum of Tropics, and their surrounding gradens. Although the Kaiser had paid for his pet projects out of his own funds and not the state coffers, that did not necessarily spare Hulstria from financial fallout. By 2365, the emperor was 15 million crown in debt, had borrowed heavily from his family, and rather than economizing, as his financial ministers advised him, he undertook new opulence and new designs without pause. He demanded that loans be sought from all of Terra's royalty, and remained aloof from matters of state. Feeling harassed and irritated by his ministers, he considered dismissing the entire cabinet and replacing them with fresh faces. The cabinet decided to act first. Seeking a cause to depose Leopold by constitutional means, the rebelling ministers decided on the rationale that he was mentally ill, and unable to rule. They asked his nephew, Prince Friedrich August, to step into the imperial vacancy once his uncle was deposed. Friedrich agreed, so long as the conspirators produced reliable proof that the Kaiser was in fact helplessly insane. Between January and April 2366, the conspirators assembled the Medical Report, on Leopold's fitness to rule. Most of the details in the report were compiled by Count von Waldenburg, who was disillusioned with the Emperor and actively sought his downfall. Waldenburg used his high rank to extract a long list of complaints, accounts, and gossip about Friedrich August from among the Kaiser's servants. The litany of bizarre behavior included his pathological shyness; his avoidance of state business; his complex and expensive flights of fancy, including moonlit picnics at which his young groomsmen were said to strip naked and dance; conversations with imaginary persons; sloppy and childish table manners; dispatching servants on lengthy and expensive voyages to research architectural details in foreign lands; and abusive, sometimes violent treatment of his servants. While some of these accusations were perhaps accurate, exactly which, and to what degree, may never be known. They were, however, sufficient to convince Prince Friedrich August to cooperate. Next the conspirators approached the Hulstrian Minister-President, Ludwig von Henschau, who doubted the report's veracity, but did not stop the ministers from carrying out their plan. In late July, the report was finalized and signed by a panel of four psychiatrists: Dr. Ruprecht von Gügendorf, chief of the Dundorf Asylum; Dr Richard von Metz (who was Von Gügendorf's son-in-law); and their colleagues, a Dr. Witfeld and a Dr. Herbert. The report declared in its final sentences that the Emperor suffered from paranoia, and concluded, "Suffering from such a disorder, freedom of action can no longer be allowed and Your Imperial Majesty is declared incapable of ruling, which incapacity will be not only for a year's duration, but for the length of Your Imperial Majesty's life." The men had never met the Emperor, nor examined him. Mysterious death At 3 a.m. on 31 July 2366, a government commission including Von Waldenburg and Von Gügendorf arrived at Oranienburg to formally deliver the document of deposition to the king and place him in custody. Tipped off an hour or two earlier by a faithful servant, Leopold ordered the local police to protect him, and the commissioners were turned back at the palace gate at gun-point. He ordered the guards to lock the entire Royal Domain. Around 6:00 pm, Leopold went for a walk through the Oranienburg parkland along the shore of the lake. He told the guards not to accompany him. His words were ambiguous ("Es darf kein Pfleger mitgehen") and whether they were meant to follow at a discreet distance is not clear. The Kaiser was last seen at about 6.30; he was due back at eight but never returned. After searches were made for more than three hours hours by the entire palace personnel in a gale with heavy rain, at 10:30 that morning the body of the Kaiser was found, floating in the shallow water near the shore. Leopold's watch had stopped at 6.54. Gendarmes patrolling the park had heard and seen nothing. The Emperor was succeeded by his nephew Friedrich II.